Community
Church Sermons
Palm Sunday – April 4,
2004
“Playing to an Audience of
One”
When I think of Jesus going into Jerusalem that day, it strikes me how alone he seems.
This is not the big DisneyWorld Electric Light Parade, you know. No fancy floats or Segway scooters – just a humble donkey upon which to ride. No huge crowd of spectators wearing Mickey Mouse ears and Goofy hats lining the streets, straining to see the Savior – just a dozen or two people from among all those he’s ministered to in the past three years. No banners – just palm branches. No bands playing “Rocky Top” – just a few voices crying out, “Hosanna!”
It is a pitiful parade, really, this entry into Jerusalem. Not even the Jewish historian Josephus makes note of it, and the people of the city probably weren’t even aware of this so-called “Triumphal Entry.” Thousands of pilgrims were coming to Jerusalem for the Passover, and this little group was just one of many.
So there was the Holy City, with its great population of people, not even noticing Jesus. There were the streams of visitors, singing psalms as they entered the gates, not even noticing Jesus. There were the disciples, looking up at the tall buildings and overwhelmed by the show of military might put on by the occupying Roman army, now hardly noticing Jesus. And there was the little donkey carrying Jesus, swept up in the flow of travelers surging through the narrow streets of the city, no longer even noticing the weight of the One it was carrying.
Doesn’t it strike you how – even in the middle of all these people, and all this noise – Jesus seems so alone?
I’ve seen this aloneness many times in the course of my ministry. Quite often, when I have been at someone’s bedside as they went about the business of dying– despite the presence of family and friends – despite the saying of prayers and the singing of songs – despite the reciting of Scripture and the speaking of words of love and devotion - there comes a moment when it seems a person moves beyond all that. Even surrounded by those they love, there is a kind of aloneness that comes upon them.
Just like Jesus was alone as he entered the city that day on his way to the Cross.
Aloneness. Most of us don’t like the thought of being left alone. And yet, here on Palm Sunday, we discover aloneness as a beautiful gift in the life of a person of faith.
Aloneness can be, I believe, one of God’s greatest blessings, and one of the most basic building blocks of healthy spirituality. If you are going to grow spiritually, you must learn to receive the gift of aloneness.
An Episcopal priest by the name of Barbara Brown Taylor writes about a Sunday morning at a church she served when the snow began to fall. It was a pretty bad storm. Not a soul showed up for worship. There was just Barbara and her Associate. They sat there in the sanctuary for a long time, thinking about what to do. Somewhere along the line, one of them remembered the Scripture passage from the second chapter of First Peter that is about all of us being priests whose job it is to offer pleasing spiritual sacrifices to God. Note the last two words. Not to ourselves. Not to others. But to GOD.
And so, in the quiet of the empty sanctuary – all alone - Barbara Brown Taylor and her Associate conducted a full worship service aimed at an audience of One - God Almighty. They read the liturgy, sang the hymns, prayed the prayers, read the Scripture, preached the word, administered the Sacrament – all for no one other than the One they could not see, but knew was present. And when it was over, Barbara was awestruck by the power and healing that came upon her life through that worship experience!
It is often only when we are alone that we become aware of the most fundamental relationship in life.. For when you strip away everything and everyone else from us – our work, our careers, our families, our possessions, our dreams, our values, our hopes, our strength, our health – there is one thing and one thing only that remains.
That audience of One - the God who gave us our lives in the beginning - the God who will receive our lives in the end – and the God who is the only constant in our lives that will never change, or whither, or fade.
And learning to play to this audience of One is extremely important!
For one thing, it is how you find true enjoyment in life!
All of our intrepid Presbyterian members no doubt remember the very first article of the Westminster Confession that summarizes biblical teaching by stating that the very purpose of your life and my life is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever!
Do you hear that awesome idea? You and I were created to ENJOY God!
I think I’ve told you before about my old friend John – a very faithful Christian man who loved the Lord so much that he even named his business “J and J Pest Control” – meaning, Jesus and John Pest Control! Well, I used to love going with John to his church every once in awhile – it was a Pentecostal church – because of what John said would happen there. “Oh Marty!” he bubbled with great excitement, “We’re gonna really ENJOY God tonight!”
And for me, a stiff old New England Congregationalist who would NEVER use the word “enjoy” in the same sentence with the word “church”, that was a radical new thought! Go to church to ENJOY God? What a concept!
And yet this is what the Bible teaches. We were created to ENJOY the Lord – at church – in nature – at work – at home – wherever we happen to be! We were made to ENJOY God’s beauty, and God’s love, and God’s power, and God’s creativity, and God’s very presence in our day to day lives. The Bible tells us that, when Jesus stepped into peoples’ lives, they were filled with great joy! And why wouldn’t they be? He was the best friend anyone could ask for! He helped bear their burdens, and listened to their troubles, and provoked their thinking, and encouraged them to become more than they thought they could be! He brought them forgiveness, and healing, and power, and hope.
And they ENJOYED his company!
That’s why we were born – to glorify God and ENJOY Him forever!
Sometimes, it takes the experience of aloneness – when all the other things we turn to for enjoyment are gone – that we are given the chance to make friends again with God, and to discover true enjoyment.
And when that happens, we can
also discover a second thing about this gift of aloneness.
If you are going through a hard time in your life right now, you need to turn to this audience of One for help. I was speaking on the telephone yesterday with one of our church members who has recently undergone surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. She’s facing a very serious challenge in her life, and now that the surgery is over, there will be both radiation and chemotherapy. She’s frightened, of course, but also full of resolve. She told me about how God has given her strength to face this difficult time, and how she is learning to rely upon the Lord for her day-to-day needs. And then she said something powerful: “I just don’t see how a person can go through times like these without God.”
You see, she has come to understand one of the great truths about life – there’s only so much you can do for yourself; there’s only so much that doctors and medicine can do; but even when you’ve exhausted your own abilities, and when others have done all they can do, there IS STILL A GOD WHO CARES!
I cannot imagine how Jesus could possibly have dared go into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday long ago without believing that even when his friends had all run away, even when he was stripped of every possession and every shred of dignity, even when he was beaten by the soldiers, and even when he was led out to be crucified on the cross – when everyone and everything had been taken away from him – there would still be a Friend who hadn’t given up on him. There would be GOD, faithful and true! You see, this is often what life comes down to – you and God standing against the troubles and storms of life together.
I don’t know what you are facing in your life right now, but I do know this: the God who made you LOVES you, the God who loves you is WITH you, the God who is WITH you will see you through AND YOU WILL BE OKAY!
All you have to do is look at
Jesus in his aloneness today, riding even into death itself, and yet finding
grace for living along the way, and confidence in that audience of One to keep
him safe. As St. Paul once said, “None of us lives to himself alone, and
none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we
die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or we die, WE ARE THE LORD’S!”
Playing your life to this audience of One will bring you true enjoyment, and will give you strength for contending with the realities of life as they come.
And then one more thing.
When you play your life to the audience of One, you will discover new direction and guidance.
If Jesus had played his life to the audience of the crowd, he would have chosen coronation rather than crucifixion. If Jesus had played his life to the audience of himself, he would have done anything to avoid the cross.
But Jesus chose another path. Jesus stepped into the unsettled darkness of Holy Week not because the people wanted him to. It was not the popular thing to do! And not because he himself wanted to. It was not in his own best interests to go to a cross and die! No, Jesus walked into Holy Week and all that lay ahead not to please others, and not to please himself. Jesus marched ahead because God called him to do it!
Only God could imagine the miraculous result of what Jesus was asked to do!!!
You see, other people are not capable of imagining what your life can be and accomplish! You yourself cannot cast a vision high enough for all that your life can mean to the world!
Only GOD knows who and what you can become! Only GOD can make a life!
Stop listening to others! Stop listening to yourself!
Start listening to the audience of One!
What does God want me to do with my life? How does God want me to handle that relationship? What would be God’s way of handling that problem? How will God shape our church? What does God call us to be and do in the midst of a violent and dehumanizing world?
These are the questions Jesus asked. This is what shaped the direction he took. This is what Holy Week is all about!
A man named Jesus dared to live his life to an audience of One. As he comes into Jerusalem today, there is a certain aloneness about him – as if his whole life hangs in the balance of God’s faithfulness and love.
And do you know what?
It DOES!
And so does yours.
As you come into Holy Week, would you take some time to be alone? Break away from the noise of the crowd, and the swirl of your own thoughts. Find a way to be alone with God.
God LOVES you! God is WITH you! God is CALLING you!